Rise and Shine
by mizlo
Summary: Nicki wakes up to a surprise and surprises herself with a stunning revelation.
1. Rise And Shine!

**A/N: **NUMBA THREE. This might continue and turn into something more, but I haven't decided yet. Maybe if Nicki is really awesome and writes part two of her Cody story. Maybe :P

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know~**  
**

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Nicki's head was throbbing, a dull but altogether antagonizing pain that seared and consumed the space between her temples. The light that cut through the windows, which were bare of any curtains, beat down upon her face penetrating her eyelids. Squinting against this intrusion provided little success and she found herself rolling in agony in search of a soothing darkness.

She wasn't so sure about darkness, but she found herself colliding with a solid form beside her. The possible consequences or aftermath of this discovery did not click at first. In fact, it didn't click at all. She was too busy fighting off the incurable pulsating that had resonated behind her eyes.

But then a warm body pressed against her back, the weight on the bed shifting to the opposite side. She realized the sun had pleasantly warmed her skin. And his.

She mulled over that thought for a couple seconds, reveling in the satisfying way his bare skin held heat against her own, and then her eyes opened in a flash.

_His?_

She bolted up straight, taking in her surroundings. A Panicked feeling started to spread throughout her body. Her hands began to lightly shake.

"Oh, shit." Out of habit, her hand nervously rose to her head and her fingers raked their way back through her hair.

There he was. Matt Hardy. In her bed. Naked. She suddenly glanced down at herself and realized one terrifying fact.

She was naked, too.

"Oh, fuck." It came out in a whisper. Her eyes sifted across the room in search of something that would explain this. Them. Together. In her bed. Naked.

She shifted on her knees, scooting away from him. A few more inspections and she felt a little bit of relief wash over her once she discovered that she still had her underwear on. Okay, so she wasn't completely naked.

But what the hell had happened last night?

She was drawing a blank. She tried to backtrack. Retrace their steps.

_Fucking A._

Everything was blurry. Somewhere she faintly remembered there being a dinner with the usual crew which had ultimately turned into a night of bullshitting and drinking games. Shannon had vomited all over her favorite pair of shoes, she sure as hell remembered that.

But any and everything involving Matt might as well have been a black hole.

"Get the fuck up" She yelled, smacking him across the back of his head. She wanted him out. The mere thought that something had gone down between the two of them had her mortified.

And slightly intrigued, but mostly mortified.

Confusion was clouding her vision and she was mentally screaming at herself to get a grip of the situation for five minutes, so she could get this wasted best friend of hers OUT OF HER BED.

"MATT!"

"Mmhmph, Shuddup." It sounded gruff and muffled as it came against the pillow his face was currently buried in. His back was to her, his arms bent at the elbows and spread out above his head. His skin looked smooth and soft. The span of his back was long and built. His shoulder blades were at a rest.

He looked amazingly beautiful.

Her breath caught in her throat and she felt it beginning to burn with fear and a high level of anxiety. "WAKE THE HELL UP." She threw herself into panic mode.

Oh god, if they'd done something. If they'd actually slept together. She..she couldn't even fathom anything past that.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He turned over with a loud, significantly annoyed moan, and covered his face with his arms, "Five more minutes.."

His perfectly pouty, full lips peeked out from the fold of his arms and she had to snap herself out of the trance they put her in so that she could get back to the task at hand.

"Matt, I'm serious. GET. UP." Without even thinking she had moved closer to him. It was just a natural instinct. They were so damn comfortable around each other that she didn't take her current appearance into any form of consideration.

He still didn't move and she found her eyes trailing down his chest this time. His fake tan shining in the gleam of the sunshine that was pooling against his skin.

When she finally worked her eyes back up to his face she was surprised to find that his arms were now folded and stacked on top of his head. He had a smug smile on his face and his eyes were glassy, yet mischievously awakened.

It took her a few seconds to realize that her chest was just mere inches from his skin.

"Don't get a boner or anything." She scowled in revolt as she sat back up and covered herself up with her arms, crossing them protectively against her chest.

"Pretty sure I woke up with one," he smirked as if it were the least of his concerns.

She growled, practically falling off the bed in her haste to get away from him.

Space.

She needed as much as she could put between them. She spotted her discarded shirt on the floor at the foot of her bed and with thankful hands she reached greedily for it, pulling it over her head.

Turning around, she watched as Matt began to stand up from the bed. The panic bombarded back through her body as she screamed, "No, don't!" She shoved her hands out in front of her as if she could thrust up some invisible shield out of thin air to stop him from displaying his manly parts to her. He stood anyway, the sheets falling from his hips to reveal a pair of boxers.

"Don't? You just told me to get up like eight times!" Matt grinned, amused by her flustered disposition.

Nicki felt like throwing herself off a cliff. Not so much because she still couldn't figure out what had happened the night before to save her life, but more so because Matt was so calm and collected as he stretched and began to walk towards her like they woke up this way every day of their lives.

He stopped a foot or two from her, leaning down to peck her on the forehead, "Don't worry, nothing happened," he assured her in an understanding tone before he continued on, exiting the room entirely.

Relief flooded from her chest before her shoulders slumped and a small, empty hole began to open in place of her previous terror. Really?

Nothing?!?

She pouted, hugging herself as she stood alone in her bedroom. The unmade bed sitting in the middle of the room, taunting her at the expense of her new found discovery. It wasn't like she had wanted anything to happen. It just.. well, nothing had happened. Nothing.

..Why hadn't anything happened?

A surge of emotions flew through her at once. Had she wanted something to happen? Yes. No. No. Of course not. Maybe.

Yes.

"Hey, Nic!"

She flinched at his voice, turning around just in time to see him sling shot her bra through the hallway at her, the lacy blue material flying through the air until it fell in a heap at her ankles.

A small smile spread across her face, _well..that had happened._

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**;)**


	2. Mark Henry Huge!

**A/N:** So if you're keeping up, Nicki HASN'T written part 2 of her Cody story, buuuuut I'm pretty awesome and decided to continue this anyway :P

**Disclaimer: **I like to think both Mizzy and I own Nicki. At least in this chapter, but you know, not really.

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Once Nicki had pulled herself together enough to actually step foot from the bedroom, she was hit with two more disappointments. One, Matt was already gone. He'd just left - just like that! So Matt-like. So...one night stand-like. No further explanations or hints as to what he remembered. Just, buh-bye, talk to you later.

Ugh.

Two, her living room looked like FEMA could very well declare it a disaster area at any moment.

WAY TO LEAVE WITHOUT HELPING, MATTHEW.

All she wanted was an Advil and a glass of water. Better yet, she wanted to lay on the couch with one foot on the ground so the room would stop spinning. Too bad she couldn't even SEE her couch.

Littered cups, plates, plastic, cigarettes, ashtrays and bowls filled with substances she didn't even WANT to question. Left out food and bottles, snack and junk foods, fruits with curious holes in them, games and dirty sketches and random lists of objects that didn't make any sense being on the same sheet of paper together - you name it because there was no telling. No wonder she couldn't remember the night before.

Apparently Shannon had made a shrine to the shoes he'd thrown up on cause there they were in all their glory on her dining room table, surrounded by candles and upright standing bananas with cigarette burns in the skins.

Lovely.

And weird.

She shook her head and then regretted it. She was about to take a step towards the kitchen when someone started to beat down her damn door. Or at least that's what it sounded like.

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF SHE'S SLEEPING. OR HUNGOVER. OR PUKING IN THE TOILET AS WE SPEAK. THIS KIND OF SHIT DOES NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT ME KNOWING ABOUT IT. DO YOU REALIZE HOW BIG THIS IS? THIS IS HUGE. LIKE MARK HENRY HUGE, MICHEAL."

"You mean like the party in my pants huge?"

There was a pause then a loud, blatant smack followed by an audible "Ooww" before the beating resumed on the door.

Nicki knew those voices. She knew that tone of voice. She knew what was coming. And she knew it was way too early and that her head hurt way too much, but that it still wouldn't matter as Lauren had practically stated already.

Nicki shuffled over to the door but before she could even reach to open it, there was what sounded like some minor animated pushing and shoving before Mizzy's voice overpowered and the door flew open, "Woman! Would you just, just go in -"

Mike and Lauren tumbled inside and then innocently straightened themselves up when they saw Nicki standing there staring at them.

"Damn. You look like Hell," Mike didn't bother to waste time using his brain filter on this lovely Saturday morning.

"Oh dear God, you do." And for once Lauren agreed with him.

Nicki stared blankly at the both of them, clearly very much UNamused.

Still, Lauren didn't waste any time.

"Why haven't you picked up your phone? I've been calling you and calling you and CALLING YOU. Where IS your cell phone? Do you even KNOW? I bet you don't even know where it is. Hell, for all you know it's shoved down Matt Hardy's pants. MUCH LIKE YOU APPARENTLY WERE. Ugh, I CANNOT BELIEVE WE MISSED THIS." She stopped and turned to Mike, pointing a finger in his face, "I never wanted to go on that stupid double date. I told you it was going to be the most boring ass date in the history of the dating world. Those two are complete idiots, I swear to.. Holy shit this place is a DISASTER. What the fuck is THAT?" She finally stopped rambling as her eyes fell on the Banana-Shoe-Shrine fiasco in the middle of the dining table.

"That's pretty phallic-like, don't you think?" Mike's head leaned to the side and up again, trying to get a different perspective. Then he turned back to his girlfriend and jumped right back in to address her previous accusations, "And I told you to think up a better excuse so we could get out of it, but noooooo that's supposed to be MY JOB."

"They're YOUR FRIENDS."

"Um, excuse me? Was I finished? I don't think I was finished." Mike had his palms held out questionably, a smirk upon his face as he eyed Nicki's best friend. "Clearly, they are OUR friends, Sweetie. Hence the reason they wanted to double date in the first place!"

Lauren fell quiet at his condescending tone. Nicki thought for a second that Lo was going to snap at him, but then she realized it was the bottom lip. Somehow in her haze, Nicki noted that he'd puckered it out in his explanation. It always made Lo lose her focus.

Eventually she snapped out of it, "Well maybe we should double date WITH NICKI SINCE APPARENTLY..."

They both turned back to Nicki as if they finally remembered why they were there. And as if on cue, they both folded their arms over their chest at the same exact time, expectant looking expressions falling along their faces. It's like she was in trouble or something.

"God, you two scare me."

Nicki groaned, closing her eyes. Mizzy and Lo were enough on a normal day and man did she love them something crazy, but right then they were literally driving HER crazy. There had been entirely too much dialogue going on for Nicki to attempt to kept up with. Phones and double dates and Matt and the party and phallic what's its?

"I can't believe you've been harboring this HUGE ASS thing for Matt ALL THIS TIME and you don't even give me a heads up when you finally decide to SEAL THE DEAL." Lauren's hands had fallen to her hips. She was giving Nicki THE LOOK. The Look that Lauren swore up and down didn't exist, but that so did. The one that she always gave when she thought Nicki had lost her mind or that suggested Nicki just HAD TO BE joking. A mix between an "oh no you didn't!" and a "Don't you even!" look because they were definitely two different things.

"I mean, I would have taken a drunken text that said something along the lines of: 'HEY HEADS UP, I'M TELLING MATT I LOVE HIM BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE STRAIGHT ANYMORE.' Or you know, a string of incoherent babbling that I could have interpreted as such."

Mizzy jumped in for her, continuing the rage. "BUT NO, she has to find out from Beth at ASS O'CLOCK this morning. Do you even REALIZE how much I've been bitched out since 6:30 last night? Not only did I FORCE HER to go on a double date which she did NOT want to go on, but because of that I made her miss YOUR DECLARATION OF LOVE TO THEE MATT HARDY. You'd think the freakin' sky was falling." He dramatically gestured up to the ceiling for emphasis.

Nicki could only stare at them, the color draining from her face. Lauren and Mizzy started their characteristic bickering back and forth again, but their words weren't reaching her ears anymore. Declaration of Love?

WHAT?

Okay, so that morning hadn't been the only time she'd been pretty enamored with the idea of something happening with Matt. It had been a pretty long on going thought, but one that she almost ALWAYS denied. One that VERY FEW people knew about and LEAST OF ALL Matt.

Until now.

Unless..unless he didn't remember?

Did he?

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**Bow chicka wow wow. R&R? Please and Thank you? :)**


	3. Break His Face!

**A/N:** An update! Holy guacamole! I was so totally bribed :P

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Talk about being on edge, for the next couple of days Nicki kept to herself. She was too chicken to call Matt and she didn't want to risk running into anybody who might question her about that infamous Saturday night. What would she say? She felt completely mortified. Nearly everyone had heard her declare her love for her best friend and she had been too drunk to even know what exactly she had said. It wasn't like she could just print out a transcript to see if it had at least come out the right way. If there even WAS a right way to tell your best friend you'd been hung up on them since the moment you'd laid eyes on them.

Uggggh.

Lo had flown back to LA with Mike, Matt had hit the road again and nearly everyone else had gone back to their usual daily duties whatever and wherever they might be. That had made it fairly easy to avoid all human contact. Nicki had spent her time attempting to put her house back together and kept herself entertained by the three girls she nannied for during the day.

She hadn't heard from Matt at all, which worried her and yet calmed her fears at the same time. It was pretty shitty that he didn't even call to see how she was feeling after a night so insane it had apparently wiped her memory, but whatever.

That didn't stop her from jumping every time the damn phone went off.

Mizzy had even called to make sure her toilet was still flushing considering the amount of vomit she had most likely disposed down it. Nicki figured Lo had made him call to check in on her and that was his way of doing so.

_Awesome, her ass._

She wasn't sure if Matt was avoiding her or if he was just busy. It was very likely that it could be either option at this point. She couldn't remember how many days it normally took him to touch base. It seemed like they spoke all the time, but maybe she just hadn't been so aware of the time before. Now she was pretty much counting every spare moment. So far it had been a total of eighty-four hours since she'd seen or heard from him.

Man, that made her sound so lame.

She didn't know if he remembered anything. If he did, she wasn't so sure she wanted to know, but then there was another apart of her that was dying to make sense of it all.

Had he heard her tell him she loved him? Was that why he hadn't called? She didn't want to seem like she regretted it if he were to ask. After all, she wasn't sure if she did or didn't. It was kind of hard when you didn't remember confessing it either way.

At any cost, it was true. She was in love with him. Wholeheartedly and sickeningly so.

BUT if he hadn't heard her, then that was fine too. They could just carry on like they had been. Best friends, close friends, good friends.

Friends, friends, friends. Just friends.

She pouted as she slumped back on her bed and plopped a pillow over her face to cover it. It was almost two o'clock in the freaking morning and she had been waiting on an update from Lo by way of Mizzy. He was supposed to have done some hinting when he saw Matt that night for NXT.

She felt like she was in tenth grade all over again. Stupid boys.

"If he ever does call I'm going to break his face," she mumbled to herself, frustrated at the world aka her ability to hold her alcohol.

Suddenly her phone started to ring and she bolted up right in her bed, reaching for it. In her haste she sent the phone flying halfway across the room until it hit the edge of her dresser. She scrambled for it, the ringtone stopping just as she pressed the button to accept the call.

"Dammit! Hello?" She stood up in a rush, her ears straining to hear a voice on the other end. She had been so flustered she hadn't even bothered to see who was calling.

"Bad time?"

Nicki froze at the sound of his voice, her eyes widening and her hand yanking the phone from her ear to look at the name on the screen for confirmation to something she didn't really need confirmation of.

Matt.

It was Matt. It was him. Break-my-face-Matt. 'FUCK' she mouthed to herself in disbelief before she shoved the phone back up to her ear again and started to dog paddle for words to say to him.

"Nah-No, no, no.. just..just..."

"One of those nights?" he offered, that drawl to his voice automatically setting her stomach at ease.

She wandered back to her bed and sunk down into the mattress. "One of those weeks," she confessed, wishing he would read between the lines and just spit it the hell out already that he knew or didn't know or had heard something from somebody or god FOR THE LOVE OF BRET HART WOULD JUST SAY SOMETHING, ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT IT.

"Oh."

Oh? OH? She bit down on her lip to keep from screaming. "Yeah."

"Should I call back later?"

Operation break his face couldn't happen soon enough and suddenly all form of calm was retreating from her system.

"Maybe."

She wanted to kick herself already. She didn't mean that. She wanted to talk to him. Her anxiety was just through the freaking roof and she couldn't stand to sit back and be all passive aggressive with him without just demanding it all be thrown out in the open. And throw it out into the opening was something she wasn't willing to do just yet.

"Oh. Alright. I'm sorry for bothering you."

Silence.

She didn't want to hang up.

"Hey, Nic?"

She held her breath. "Yeah?"

"Who loves ya?"

She blinked as a veil of tears began to form before her. He always said that when she was feeling down, only he didn't know how true she wanted it to be this time around.

Only Matt could make her want to punch kittens and then regret it in the span of three seconds.

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**So do you think he's clueless or do you think he knows? **...


	4. Itchy Bra Bitch!

**A/N: **Man, it's been a while, hasn't it? My computer is currently out of commission, but this needed to be done and inspiration hit so I've hijacked another computer for a couple minutes to get this one up and posted! **  
**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Matty, Mizzy, Smithy or Nicki (or her bra)**  
**

* * *

Lo called four minutes later.

Go fucking figure.

"Have I ever told you how bad your timing is?" Nicki sighed, getting up to head into the living room. She had to get out of her bedroom. It felt like her conversation with Matt was hanging in the air around her and the space felt entirely too negative for her to sit in it and agonize over what had gone wrong.

"Uhh.. no? Maybe? I can't remember."

"FOUR MINUTES. What were you doing that you couldn't have called four minutes ago?" Nicki wandered into the kitchen and headed straight for the freezer. It was one of those nights that was calling for ice cream.

"Talking to my boyfriend about your wannabe boyfriend?"

Nicki grabbed a spoon. "I hate you."

"I hate you, too. Now, what happened four minutes ago that I'm now in the fake best friend dog house over?"

"Matt called."

"Oh." Lo sighed with understanding, then paused, "Wait, why is that bad? Did he say something? Did you ask him?"

"DO I LOOK LIKE A CRAZY PERSON?"

"Um, you SOUND like one."

Nicki plopped down on her sofa and pulled the top off of her pint of chocolate ice cream, "It was just stupid. He caught me off guard cause I thought it would be you and then he didn't say ANYTHING but 'OH' when I told him I wasn't having the best week. What kind of idiot says 'OH' to their best friend? Not a 'What's going on?' Not a 'How are you feeling?' or a 'Wanna talk about it?' Just a freaking 'WANT ME TO CALL LATER?'"

Lo was silent for a second or two, "You do realize he's a guy, right? Guys don't say shit like that. I mean, yeah..sometimes, but not normally."

Nicki pouted. "I bet DH Smith says shit like that."

"Yeah well, are plotting to go after Matty or Smithy here? Cause if we're trying to bag you Smithy, I want to be paid overtime."

Nicki stabbed her spoon into her ice cream, "It might be more fun to see Smithy beat up Matty right about now."

Lauren smirked, "I'd use my overtime to pay to see that."

"Ugh." Nicki switched the phone into her opposite hand as she repositioned herself on the couch, "Okay, so what did your _awesome _boyfriend find out?"

Lo's voice shot up an octave, getting excited as she began to recount the gossip to her friend, "Okay, so Mike says he started out by just casually mentioning the party and how he heard it was really insane."

"Right." So far Nicki wasn't impressed. She needed juicy details, stat. Something to make her night feel not so shittastic.

"And apparently Matt said, and I quote _'Yeah, there were some pretty interesting turn of events'_ and Mike said he tried to get Matt to elaborate and.."

Nicki's ears had perked up, "AND? AND? WHAT DID HE SAY?"

"Matt said that you were in rare form and he doesn't remember EVER seeing you so drunk before, but that it was kind of adorable because you're REALLY CUTE when you're TAKING OFF YOUR OWN BRA FOR HIM BECAUSE THE TAG IS TOO ITCHY AND YOU WANT HIM TO FIX IT."

... "WHAT?"

"YEAH."

"OH MY GOD."

"YEAH."

"AND HE SAID 'OH?' EARLIER?"

"What he meant was OOOHHHHH YEEEEAH."

"SHUT UP."

"Oh come on, you were completely shitfaced! These things happen."

"YEAH WELL IT WASN'T YOU, SO YOU CAN SAY THAT."

"Actually, remember Halloween last year? Somehow I managed to drink an entire liquor store and then threw up all over Mizzy. And yet, that boy still loves me and even walked around telling people it was part of his costume so I wouldn't feel embarrassed.."

Nicki made a disapproving face, "YEAH, YEAH OKAY I GET IT. That was pretty bad. And gross. And morbidly sweet, but at least you weren't STRIPPING FOR YOUR BEST GUY FRIEND BECAUSE OF AN ITCHY BRA TAG."

"He did say you were really cute and adorable? Which was probably code for 'MAN HER TWINS WERE..'"

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING."

"Sorry."

Nicki rolled her eyes, "This night just keeps getting better and better."

"Well, there is more."

"Do I want to know?"

"Yes, you do. Matt apparently said that if anything, he really enjoyed waking up next to you the next morning."

Nicki sat, her eyes zeroing in on the wording on the pint of ice cream though she wasn't reading any of what was scrawled along the side of it. WHAT. DID. THAT. MEAN? "Like, ..enjoyed HOW? You can't just throw that at me like that with nothing else!"

"I don't know. Mike Mizanin isn't the best at following up, this much I've learned. I'm going to have to teach him some things. If we're breaking this down in Matt language though, I like to think it means _'Hey, I could get used to sleeping with my best friend and waking up to her hoo-hoos every morning!'_ don't you think?"

"YOU ARE HORRIBLE AT THIS GAME."

"What? Do you prefer the term 'lady milkmakers?' I'm saying this is a GOOD thing. Obviously in some strange form of guy talk this means that he's into you in more than just a best friend kind of way, so much so that he'd be more than happy to spend the rest of his nights with you."

"Or that he just likes my LADY MILKMAKERS as you so eloquently put it! WHAT ABOUT MY SUPPOSED DECLARATION OF LOVE? WHAT ABOUT THE PART WHERE I TOTALLY SPILLED THE BEANS? WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THAT? I still have NO IDEA if he even HEARD any of that!"

"Please, if Matt's going to have an honest conversation about you and him, I'm pretty sure the LAST person he's going to have a heart to heart with is Mike. I mean, c'mon, I love the boy, but we both know it's the truth."

"So why did I even ask YOU to ask HIM to ask the OTHER him?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna ignore that." Lauren sighed, before attempting to regroup everything for her friend, "Look, so Matt saw your tits. It's not like he's never seen a pair before." Nicki huffed, but Lauren continued, "If he was that put out, he would have run out of your bed the next morning. Not kissed you on the forehead and slung your bra at you with some weird quirky smirk on his face."

"YEAH ABOUT THAT," Nicki was fuming inside when she realized just WHY he'd done that now. She was ripping that friggin tag out that bra the moment she got off the phone with Lo.

"And he definitely would be avoiding you in some kind of strange_ 'HOLY SHIT, I SAW MY BEST FRIEND NAKED'_ kind of way, not calling you at two o'clock in the morning. He also definitely wouldn't have even mentioned what he did to Mike because he's gotta be an idiot not to realize that whatever he tells Mike is going to get back to me which is then going to get back to you."

Lo was slowing starting to make some sense. As much sense as could be made at that point, "Keep going.."

"The phrase_ 'Interesting turn of events'_ is code for the fact that he didn't hate what happened. Also, whether or not he remembers you telling him you love him doesn't matter because still, _'interesting turn of events'_ doesn't translate into _'SHE SAID SHE LOVES ME AND I DON'T FEEL THE SAME WAY SO I NEVER WANT TO SEE HER AGAIN'_. Are you following me here?"

"Yeah, yeah. You've mastered never allowing your best friend to beat herself up over showing the guy she loves her boobs just fine. Congratulations!"

"A little cranky at two in the morning, aren't we?"

"You're on a three hour time difference, and you didn't wake up in Evan Bourne's bed with nothing but your underwear on."

"Mmm, there's a thought!"

"You're hopeless."

"You love me!"

"High flyer whore."

"Itchy bra bitch!"

* * *

**The funny part is that Nicki and I really do talk like this in real life!**


End file.
